


But with Dating and Dancing

by pluto



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-02-04
Updated: 2010-02-04
Packaged: 2017-10-08 20:37:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,125
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/79299
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pluto/pseuds/pluto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With three suddenly aboard the TARDIS, things are a little off balance.  Rose tries to find her feet again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	But with Dating and Dancing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Petronia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Petronia/gifts).



> Written for [](http://petronia.livejournal.com/profile)[**petronia**](http://petronia.livejournal.com/). Thank you so so much to [](http://ladymako71.livejournal.com/profile)[**ladymako71**](http://ladymako71.livejournal.com/) for the speedy beta. Any remaining errors are all my fault!

Rose is always surprised to find that she can still be overwhelmed by it all, and by such small, simple and--to the Doctor, at least--common things. It's rarer now, but it still happens. Like now, when the Doctor reminds her that their new, gorgeous (_incredibly gorgeous_) company would be just as happy dancing with him as her... or with anything else vaguely sentient. Suddenly she is back in the Doctor's arms, where it is safe to be on these mad adventures meeting people and places and things that are so impossible, but so impossibly real.

The Doctor spins her around, and as she laughs, she sees Jack watching, his feet moving along to the music. There's something in his expression that makes her let go of the Doctor's left hand and reach towards him. He doesn't miss a beat, pretty Jack, and suddenly they are three, all semblance of proper dancing giving way to a dizzy, impromptu whirl. The Doctor escapes a moment later; Jack seizes her empty fingers, pulls her close. She's still laughing, but she's suddenly breathless.

"Hello," she says, and Jack's cheeks dimple as he grins.

"We're starting that again, huh?"

"Well--I am a bit dizzy."

"Don't worry, I'll catch you." Jack winks. Rose flushes.

The music stops.

Rose startles away from Jack, catching her bottom lip in her teeth.

"Well, that's odd," the Doctor says. Rose turns to see him peering at the TARDIS console. He pokes at a few knobs and buttons, and then he claps his hands together in a dusting-off motion. "But--no matter. It's time we were away. So, ladies and little apes--that would be you, Captain--where to next? Pyramids, perhaps? Or I know a good singing sea or two. Or rat-people--one can never have enough rat-people."

"Rat-people?" Rose repeats. She closes the distance between herself and the Doctor and wrinkles her nose. "Not for me, thanks." She tangles her fingers in the Doctor's and grins up at him, and he grins back at her in a way that makes her feel brilliant. He jerks his thumb in Jack's direction.

"Thought maybe the Captain would like some company."

"C'mon, Doctor, which am I, ape or rat? Or ape-rat?" Jack says, but he's laughing as he says it. "How about Pendiva Blix? You wouldn't believe the food there, Rose. Pendiva-on-the-Rise, forty-two-fifteen. Wouldn't you agree, Doc?"

"I _am_ sort've hungry...." Rose looks at the Doctor, who scoffs.

"Captain, you're embarrassing yourself! Pendiva-on-the-Rise doesn't hold a candle to Op-op-bim-bim in the thirty-ninth century."

"Op-op-bim-bim?" Rose can't help it, she bursts into giggles. "You're just making that up! Admit it!"

"Not at all! Fantastic seafood. And chips!"

"They've got chips?"

"Incredible chips. Phenomenal chips. The best chips you've never had!"

"Fantastic," she says, and then she's giggling all over again because it's what he should have said. "Let's go!"

"And you, Jack, how about it? How about some chips? Or fries, for your odd little American ears."

"_My_ odd ears!"

Rose thinks for a split second she sees Jack looking as overwhelmed as she felt not so long ago, but if that's true, he hides it well under a grin before she can be sure of what she saw. He salutes them both in a playful way.

"Aye aye, Doctor." He slips her another wink. "Happy to go where ever you two want to take me."

She gapes, delightfully scandalized, and then giggles, turning to the Doctor, who shakes his head mock-sadly.

"Don't look at me. You've got the blame for this one, too, Rose."

She gives the Doctor a good one in the arm before he can flee for the TARDIS controls and claim the safety accorded to the driver.

***

"Oh god, you weren't kidding," Rose exclaims, her mouth full of chips. "These are--" She can't think of a word that could fit their sublime culinary genius, so she settles for "Mmmmmmm." She swallows. "But where do they grow potatoes on a water world?"

"You probably shouldn't ask that," Jack suggests, but the Doctor says,

"Well, they're not exactly potatoes--"

Rose covers her lips with her fingers. "What?"

"They're sort of a--Like a jellyfish. Tuber. Thing. A swimming plant. Somewhat related to the potato, in the way humans are related to the Ulo--"

"Which they aren't," Jack says. "Ulo aren't even bipedal. Well not technically, I mean, you can't tell unless they're naked, but they've got this extra little pair of legs by their--"

"Oh I don't want to know!" Rose eats another chip slowly, gloriously, savors every bite. "They're still delicious! This whole place is amazing."

The restaurant itself is bowl-shaped, floating on the blue-green water that stretches as far as she can see. The walls are made of something that looks like glass to Rose, but sounds like metal when she knocks on the wall beside her. The decor is all pearl and silver and more of the glass stuff and the chips rest in something that resembles a double-boiler. The Doctor has ordered a variety of other dishes as well, but Rose is single-minded. She finishes off the last chip and makes eyes at the Doctor to order more.

"Oh, all right," he says, but she can tell he doesn't really mind. He waves at the waiter, who resembles a strange, transparent squid, and then looks hard at Jack. "Only if _you_ don't tease the waiter again."

Rose grins as she recalls how the squid-waiter fluttered its sides and changed to a faint red when Jack flirted shamelessly with it earlier.

"Cross my heart. I've got to go make use of the facilities, anyway." Jack stands. "Too much of that--whatever it was." He points at the glass full of violet-orange liquid, and then strolls away.

The Doctor leans towards Rose conspiratorially. "You know what it is? It's the fermented seminal fluid of a--"

"Did you say 'seminal'-- Doesn't that mean-- Oh god." Rose pushes her own glass away.

"You ordered it. Good for virility."

"It was pretty!" Rose protests. "You should've said something."

The Doctor laughs and grasps his own glass. "Nah, just kidding. It's only seaweed juice." He raises the glass and gestures with his eyebrows to her. "Drink up."

"I can't now," she says, even though she picks up her glass and laughs.

The Doctor taps his glass against hers. "To--" He pauses, thinks. "To dating and dancing."

She feels her face flush and starts to say something, but the waiter has arrived, and is fluttering gently. The Doctor turns to it and says,

"Another order of chips, please."

When the waiter moves away, Rose rests her elbows on the table and touches her warm cheeks.

"This a date then?" she hazards in a small voice, leaning in closer.

"What? With three of us?" The Doctor laughs and she feels tremendously foolish for asking. Worse yet, Jack has returned and slides into his seat, throwing them both a puzzled look. She wonders if they've made him feel awkward. She can't tell; he's always smiling, even when he isn't. "Captain, Rose has just declared this a date! Can you believe that?"

"I didn't say--" she begins, blushing even harder.

"I'll bet Jack's been on a three person date before. Maybe four or five. Three's probably too tame for you, Captain!"

"There _was_ this lovely quartet of ladies--well, I think they were female--on Wexator III--"

"Oh, stop it, both of you!" Rose snaps, and then she laughs at herself, covering her ears to stop the burning. "He's the one who said it. Not me. About being on a date." She points at the Doctor.

Jack beams. "Why, Doctor, we've only just met. And now you're inviting me into your TARDIS, wining and dining me..."

"I suppose I had to do something in exchange for saving Rose from falling to her death, didn't I? Consider it debt repaid." The Doctor slings an arm over Rose's shoulders and pulls her close. She leans into the strength of his body.

Jack's eyes move from the Doctor to Rose, and something about his smile leaves his eyes. Rose blinks, the beginnings of a question stirring in her mind. But the waiter comes back with the chips then, and she loses the thought to the delicious smell of deep-fried not-exactly-potatoes.

***

She remembers later. They're in the TARDIS, spread out over the cabin in a loose triangle. Jack's fiddling with something on his wrist and she's holding down a button on the console for the Doctor, who's pulled up a grate and is fumbling underneath the main floor. She just happens to glance over when Jack looks up, his eyes landing on the Doctor. His gaze lingers a long time, the expression on his face such an intimate one she knows she ought to look away. But she doesn't.

Rose suddenly thinks, "Do I look like that, sometimes?"

"Look like what?" the Doctor says, before she realizes she's spoken her thought aloud.

"Like," she fumbles for a lie, "Like a-- a--" And she can't help it, she glances at Jack even though she doesn't mean to, and the Doctor follows. They both catch Jack still looking. Jack blinks and then laughs.

"Sorry," he says, "Zoned out for a minute there. I was just thinking about this gorgeous gal I ran into in 1442. Actually, reminded me of you, Rose." Jack gleams when he smiles, dazzling her with his flattery, and she falls for it easily.

"Oh, shut up," she says, in a way that doesn't mean "shut up" at all. He puts down the tool he's working with, crosses the TARDIS and takes up her free hand. He presses his lips against her knuckles and Rose feels her skin go tingly from head to foot. Breathing is suddenly far too difficult.

"Never," he says.

Her face hurts from smiling too much.

"Oi, no flirting on my ship," the Doctor calls, ducking back down into the opened grate.

Jack squeezes her fingers. "You didn't mind before."

"New rule."

"You're just jealous," Rose teases, catching Jack's eye and sharing the joke.

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Am not!"

"Hey, hey. No need to fight. You can both have me," Jack offers. "I'm an expert at sharing."

"I'll bet you are, you clever little thing." The Doctor's tone is not quite nice; the one he sometimes uses with Mickey, the one Rose knows she ought to yell at him for but never does. It makes her pause.

She stares at the Doctor, hunched down into the grate. "Are you really jealous?"

The Doctor's head pops up. He's showing his teeth. "Who me? Not at all. Don't be silly, Rose."

Rose tilts her head, and she wonders. But she doesn't like wondering, doesn't like to think that things are not quite in balance in the TARDIS any more. "What are we fixing, anyway? Can I let go of this button now?"

"Not yet!" The Doctor waves at her. "I've almost got it, I think--"

Jack takes a half-step towards the Doctor. "Need a hand?"

"No!" the Doctor says.

"My hand's getting a bit tired," Rose tells him, and Jack slides his fingers overtop of hers. She presses her lips together and turns her head slightly so he can't see her ridiculous smile.

"We can't have that, can we? You know, I had a friend back at the Agency who used to call me Mr. Magic Fingers."

"No flirting!" The Doctor's admonition is slightly muffled from under the grate, and serves to make Rose giggle more than anything else.

"I can use my magic fingers on you too--"

"Not on the first date! I'm not that kind of man."

Jack grins. His thumb strokes across her knuckles. "Better?"

Rose nods, wondering if she really saw what she thought saw on Jack's face earlier, while he was staring at the Doctor. Maybe she's just imagining things. Maybe she's projecting. Looking at Jack now, there's nothing but real interest in her, awkward and flattering and wonderful. "That a fifty-first century thing?"

She's spoken her thoughts aloud again. Jack asks, "What?"

"Oh..." She lies much more easily this time. "Being so good at flirting."

"Nah," Jack grins. "It's just me. I'm just that talented."

She swats him and they laugh, and eventually, the Doctor joins them.

***

Later, she finds herself alone with Jack for the first time since the Chula warship. They are lying on the soft pink sand of an artificial island on Op-op-bim-bim, staring up at the strange and beautiful star-filled skies. It's easy for her to talk to Jack, she discovers, so easy it's a little scary. She hears herself saying things she never thought she'd tell anyone.

"I've been thinking it's like, a Prince Charming thing, with the Doctor," she's saying. "You know, dashing hero sweeps in and saves the princess..."

"Or the prince," Jack says.

"Or the prince," Rose agrees. "But you know, maybe it's just some sort of star struck sort of thing. I mean, I still like Mickey. I think. It's just that the Doctor, he's so--interesting."

"Yeah," Jack says, and she sneaks a look at him, but she can't tell what he's thinking.

"Anyway--" She stops and feels her ears go hot. She never realized how much she's yearned for someone to share all this with, who understands the crazy mix of wonder and excitement and longing that comes with travelling with the Doctor. "Why am I explaining myself? I haven't got anything to explain."

"Oh no?" Jack slides her a suggestive look, all eyebrows and crooked mouth. She fixes her eyes on the stars above. But he lets her off the hook, this time. "You know, when I was a kid, I always wanted to be the dashing hero. Funny how life turns out."

Rose bites her lip. "Well, you did save my life." She pauses and thinks. "Only, then the Doctor saved your life. So I guess... you're my Prince Charming and the Doctor's yours." She pauses at that, feeling funny once the words are out.

"I'm your Prince Charming?"

Rose can feel Jack's sudden smile like it's the sun. She doesn't want to look at it. She feels a little guilty. "Well, I've got two Prince Charmings, I guess."

"Nah. I think the Doctor's the only Prince Charming here."

She rolls over and grabs his arm. "No," she insists, but she doesn't know if she just does it to avoid hurting his feelings.

"Hey, I don't mind. It's exciting to be rescued once in a while. Good change of pace," he says, and winks at her. "So where is he, anyway?"

"He said he had to talk to some Lelian but that we couldn't come along because they hate strangers."

"He woke you up to tell you that?"

Rose nods. She sees it again, that look: longing and needing and loving and admiration, all rolled up into one. This time she's sure she sees it, and she sympathizes so much that she can feel it hurting under her breastbone. "He likes you, Jack, he really does," she says, squeezing his bicep. She's distracted momentarily by the solidarity of it, and squeezes again. He laughs and rolls over to face her as well.

"He still doesn't trust me."

"That's not true. He wouldn't let you on the TARDIS if he didn't trust you."

Jack blinks, like he hadn't thought of that. "What about that guy you told me about? Andrew? Adam or whatever his name was."

Rose swallows. "That one was, um, my fault."

"Maybe I'm your fault too."

She doesn't know what to say to that, so she doesn't say anything, just shrugs.

Jack searches her face for something. Eventually, he says,

"Can I kiss you?"

She flushes all over but she puts her arm between them. "You're not gonna think about him while you do it, are you? " she whispers.

"I won't. Will you?"

Rose says, "No." She says, "Promise?"

"Promise."

They're probably both partly lying, but the kiss is nice. He's a good kisser--a very good kisser. The kind of kisser who makes her think about every other nice part of her body while he's doing it, even though the only places they are touching is their mouths and her hand on his arm. When they break apart Rose gasps and bites her bottom lip, feeling very warm.

"Oh, wow."

"Yeah."

"Do it again?"

"Yeah. Please. Yeah."

***

The Doctor's wordless noise of frustration fills the TARDIS and makes Rose flinch. She notices Jack flinch, too. Rose exchanges a look with Jack and then gets up, walking over to the Doctor. She laces her fingers with the Doctor's, but he slips away, gesturing at the TARDIS console angrily.

"Busted, absolutely, completely irretrievably broken! But it doesn't make sense! It should be fixed."

"What is?" Rose says, at the same time that Jack offers,

"Let me have a look."

"You, Captain! Ha! Know all about TARDISes, do you? On the other hand, it's been broken ever since you came on board. So maybe you ought to fix it!"

Jack halts his forward approach and Rose presses her lips together. "The TARDIS is broken?" she asks.

"No, no, no." The Doctor throws his arms up in the air. "Just the filaxipris wave oscillator--"

"That why we're still on Op-op-bim-bim? Can't go without it?"

"No, it's completely unnecessary, actually."

"So, then, what?"

"It should be working!" the Doctor exclaims, as if that should explain everything to her. Rose tries again to take his hand, but he's already moving to grab a rubber mallet. The sound of the mallet contacting metal rings throughout the chamber. Rose winces again.

"We could go for more chips," she offers, a bit nervously. "Take a bit of a break. It might come to you."

"Come to me. Right." He wiggles his fingers in the air. "Like it's all magical, right, fixing things."

"Hey, she's just trying to help," Jack says. He puts a hand on the Doctor's arm.

The Doctor turns and stares at him.

But Jack doesn't let go, not right away. Jack says something first, voice dropped low, and Rose strains to hear. "Look, Doctor, if you'd rather I get off here, no problem. I'm not here to make trouble. I appreciate you rescuing me from certain death, but I'm a big boy. I can find my way."

Rose wants to say something, anything. She wants to say no, to tell Jack not to go, to tell the Doctor to stop being so silly. She wants to insist that the Doctor notice how much it is killing Jack to propose leaving. She wants to tell him to stop being jealous, because there's nothing to be jealous of. Or for. Or something. She wants to shout that it's all gotten too complicated and upside down, even leaving out Mickey back home.

She can't manage to say anything.

"If I wanted you off my ship," the Doctor says, his voice making her jump, "You'd be off my ship, Captain. So shut up, quit making assumptions, and get out of my way."

Jack's lips part, but his hand falls away from the Doctor's arm, and he steps aside. The Doctor stops at another panel and examines it with his sonic screwdriver, as if nothing has happened.

Rose says, in a small voice, "I'm sorry, Doctor."

"For what?" He's still clearly irritated.

"We just kissed. Nothing else. I swear."

The Doctor looks up at her. She feels his gaze as if it is a physical beam that cuts straight through her. His mouth twitches.

"Kissed? Did you now? Well, isn't that nice for you two, then," he says, and goes back to work. A moment later he sighs and points at Jack with his sonic screwdriver. "You. Take her. Not like that--! For chips. Now. Got it?" He waits only long enough for Jack to nod. "Good. Get out."

Rose barely notices Jack take her hand and drag her out of the TARDIS.

***

"Oh god, I've totally ruined it!" Rose hides her face in her overlong sleeves. There's a massive bowl of chips between her and Jack, but neither of them have touched even one.

"You haven't."

"I have! I don't know why I said that. About the kissing."

"I don't know either," Jack says, but he grins as he says it. "I was almost starting to think he was okay with me being there."

"What if he just leaves us here? What if we go back and--" She can't finish the sentence. The thought is too horrible.

Jack's smile fades and he looks grim. "Then I've still got a few tricks up my sleeve. Don't worry." When she turns her face and doesn't answer, he reaches across the table and squeezes her shoulder. "Rose, I am so sorry. Bet you wish I never showed up, don't you? But this is my fault, and I'll make it right."

"He's just--I can never tell what he's thinking! I mean, sometimes I think I know, but maybe I've just been convincing myself. It's so... he's so..."

"Mysterious? Amazing? Incredible? Infuriating? An insufferable tease?"

She laughs despite herself, wiping ruefully at her wet cheeks. "You don't know the half. But why does he even care? He doesn't think of me that way. I'm not even sure I think of him that way!"

"Me either," Jack says, but she can tell he's being facetious and she swats at him.

"It's like I just... I just really look up to him, you know? And if he left... I just don't know what. I can't go back to where I was, who I was before him. I just can't."

"I know what you mean." Jack speaks in a tone she's never heard him use before, but that she understands completely.

"Mickey would say 'but you've only known him a few days.'"

"But you know what it's like."

She nods. She picks up a chip, bites into it, and makes a face, dumping the rest on her plate.

"Doesn't taste like anything," she says.

Jack just nods.

"Let's go back."

"Are you sure?" he says.

"I have to know. The sooner the better, right? Like pulling off a band-aid."

Jack squeezes her fingers, and waves at the waiter.

***

The TARDIS is still there. Thank god.

Rose squeezes the rolled-up end of the carryout bag of chips. She hears Jack take a deep breath beside her. They push the doors open together.

The main room is dark and empty. Rose runs inside. "Doctor? Doctor!" She spins to face Jack. "Where is he?" She feels herself starting to fray. "Could something've happened? Doctor!"

She freezes as "Moonlight Serenade" suddenly fills the space, echoing off the high, round walls. The Doctor's triumphant shout follows: "Got it!"

Rose watches, wide-eyed and confused, as the Doctor climbs up out of a portal in the floor that she's never noticed. Then her body unlocks; she runs to him, flings her arms around his neck, and kisses him, hard, on the mouth.

The Doctor blinks and laughs. "Hello to you too, Rose Tyler. And you, Jack." He nods at Jack. "Chips smell good. You didn't eat them all? Finally had enough?"

"I thought--" Rose hears the quiver in her own voice, feels silly for it, but she can't hide it. Won't. "I thought you were sending us away. Like, forever away."

He gives her a chiding look. "What? No. Just needed some peace and quiet to get things sorted. The oscillator, I mean." He shakes his head. "All that lurking and fussing and silliness you two were up to. Distracting. What were you two on about anyway?"

Rose glances at Jack and bites her lip. "Oh, just, nothing important."

"As you like. Long as you've got it out of your systems now. Have you?"

Rose flushes, and nods.

"Good. Fantastic, even." He offers her one hand. She laces fingers with him. "Dance?"

"Yes, please." But she stops and turns her head to look at Jack, who is hovering by the doorway. Then she realizes the Doctor is looking Jack's way as well, and his hand is extended. Rose holds out her hand, as well.

Jack doesn't move right away.

"Don't play hard to get now, Captain," the Doctor says. "Get over here and join us." When Jack still hesitates, he says, "Come on. It's our song."

Jack's sudden smile spreads, infectious, and Rose can't help it, she's grinning from ear to ear. So is the Doctor as the three of them join hands and attempt, badly, to dance together. But they manage to find a shared rhythm, she and the Doctor and Jack; and maybe it is still a touch overwhelming, but it is overwhelming in an exhilarating and absolutely fanta


End file.
